I really don't think that most anyone will be interested in this post except gamers who might have wondered about playing via virtual tables, so… you've been warned this ones probably boring… well more so than the rest heh, feel free to skip it.
It all began a few short weeks ago when I thought to myself;
"Wouldn't it be great if I could play a role playing game with some of my friends that live far away?"
So I sent out an e-mail to 8 of my friends that I thought might be interested in such an endeavor... guess what? They were!
So, I set a date for playing about 4 weeks out, and got serious about determining what kind of game that the majority would like to play, when they'd like to do it, and what tools that we would need to do it with.
I had seen something about D20Pro from when I was hanging out at the wizards forums whining about the late release of their vapor ware virtual table, so I started by looking at their software. I was quite impressed! I'm not sure if I heard about Fantasy Grounds there, or if it was because it's true what they say about, "Google is your friend."
Either via Google, or from hearing about it on the D20Pro site, I quickly came across the fantasy grounds website. From there, I heard about battlegrounds. On battlegrounds, I saw the ad for the FUMCon that was coming up in a week at a community site called "the four ugly monsters". So I spent the week bouncing around posting on message boards and getting to know the available tools. I looked at D20Pro, Fantasy Grounds, Battlegrounds, RPTools, and one or two more before FUMCon weekend (Easter 2009) started up.
The comparative web site that Heruca has put together over at Battlegrounds was most helpful at this stage! (Here's the link: http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/links.html )
Between my research, a personal demo given by Valarian while I was at FUMCon, and the video demos at Fantasy Ground web site, I decided to drop my cash on Fantasy Grounds II virtual table and I bought 7 light licenses, and 1 GM license. RPtools and Battlegrounds RPG were in the running but I decided on FG II, because:
- Though RPTools is free, and that's a HUGE draw, Fantasy Grounds II seemed more user friendly than RPtools, and ease of use will is very important to my 'new to role playing' friends.
- I loved the map system of Heruca's, Battlegrounds software, especially how he handles line of sight, but the Character Sheet usage seemed more robust in Fantasy Grounds II.
- D20pro looked like it had good map tools, and I think that it's character sheet management was adequate, (they partner up with hero builder to do it I think,) but - the community support at Fantasy Grounds, and the content that has been developed for it seemed quite a bit stronger.
- From talking to various users of VTT's it seemed that for my needs that Fantasy Grounds would fit the bill the best.
- The Video Tutorials were AWESOME, and really went a long way; along with the personal demo that Valarian put on for me at FUMCon in helping me to decide that FG II would be the software of choice.
- Lastly though the current licensing of FG II isn't what I would prefer, (Battlegrounds has it nailed in that department.) there were promises of 'floating license subscriptions' in the works that will hopefully provide a solution for new users that may want to play in my games.
Those are the main points that I went through when deciding what to get. I'm really looking forward to getting Battlegrounds for miniature war gaming on a VTT, and I have had doubts about FG being better than the other available products. They all seem to have something to offer. But the volume of users using Fantasy Grounds II goes a long way too.
One other Table that I looked at by following an add link from fouruglymonsters.com was iTabletop. It provides a game table with video support. When I visited they were running a deal where you could buy a GM license and 10 user licenses for a life time subscription - all upgrades and future products developed from the base code included for a killer deal.
I didn't do as much 'looking around' at iTabletop, and it seems like it is very weak on a lot of the basic tools that other VTT's offer, but it was a pretty easy buy just for the online video meeting capabilities that it afforded whether I use it for my gamer group, or just business meetings remains to be seen, but I was thrilled to get such a package for such a price. Thanks for the Add FUM!
Concerns I have are that my group wants to play DnD 4th ed, but the resources available to me to run games in that system are not as polished as other systems. There will be allot of work using parsers and such to get content from the material I own into the Fantasy Grounds Software, but I have a few weeks to prep. So, I hope that it all works out.
This was a long Blog, but I wanted to get down in writing exactly how I started my journey down the Virtual Table Top road. I will conclude by saying that FUMCon was HUGE in increasing my excitement for the tool... to see so many active users having fun and doing games was thrilling. I wish there was a way to have that kind of user interaction and participation every week. Heh.
Since then I have had visions of starting a part time company that does something that generates income from this burgeoning industry. Heh who knows, maybe someday I'll look back with fondness on the days I started dabbling in the world of virtual table top gaming.
zWolf -out.
By:
Wade Hone.
